CHAPTER 5

Verse 1

arjuna uvāca
sannyāsaṁ karmaṇāṁ kṛṣṇa
punar yogaṁ ca śaṁsasi
yac chreya etayor ekaṁ
tan me brūhi su-niścitam

Arjuna said: O Kṛṣṇa, after first praising the renunciation of action, You are now praising niṣkāma-karma-yoga, action offered to Bhagavān without attachment to its fruit. Please tell me definitively which of these two is auspicious for me.

Verse 2

śrī-bhagavān uvāca
sannyāsaḥ karma-yogaś ca
niḥśreyasa-karāv ubhau
tayos tu karma-sannyāsāt
karma-yogo viśiṣyate

Śrī Bhagavān said: Both renouncing one’s prescribed duty – karma-sannyāsa – and worshipping the Supreme Lord by selflessly offering Him the fruit of one’s prescribed duty – niṣkāma-karmayoga – bring auspiciousness, but niṣkāma-karma-yoga is certainly superior to karma-sannyāsa.

Verse 3

jñeyaḥ sa nitya-sannyāsī
yo na dveṣṭi na kāṅkṣati
nirdvandvo hi mahā-bāho
sukhaṁ bandhāt pramucyate

O mighty-armed Arjuna, one who neither hates nor desires anything is worthy to be known as a sannyāsi, because one who is free from the dualities of aversion and attachment easily becomes liberated from bondage to this material world.

Verse 4

sāṅkhya-yogau pṛthag bālāḥ
pravadanti na paṇḍitāḥ
ekam apy āsthitaḥ samyag
ubhayor vindate phalam

Only the ignorant say that the renunciation of action (sāṅkhya) and worshipping Bhagavān by selflessly offering Him the fruit of one’s action (niṣkāma-karma-yoga) are different. The wise reject such opinions. By following either path correctly, one attains the result of both, in the form of liberation from material bondage.

Verse 5

yat sāṅkhyaiḥ prāpyate sthānaṁ
tad yogair api gamyate
ekaṁ sāṅkhyaṁ ca yogaṁ ca
yaḥ paśyati sa paśyati

The result attained by renunciation, or analytical study, is also attained by offering the fruits of one’s action to the Supreme Lord. Those who know the Truth and who see that both award the same result actually sees.

Verse 6

sannyāsas tu mahā-bāho
duḥkham āptum ayogataḥ
yoga-yukto munir brahma
na cireṇādhigacchati

O mighty-armed one, renouncing one’s prescribed duty without selflessly offering the fruit of that duty to the Supreme brings distress, but one who worships the Lord by niṣkāma-karma-yoga, selflessly offering Him the fruits of one’s action, becomes a jñānī and very quickly attains the stage of transcendence.

Verse 7

yoga-yukto viśuddhātmā
vijitātmā jitendriyaḥ
sarva-bhūtātma-bhūtātmā
kurvann api na lipyate

A person who performs niṣkāma-karma-yoga with a purified mind and controlled intelligence and whose senses are also under his control is the object of affection for all living entities. He is unaffected by action, even though engaged in action.

Verse 8-9

When a person who selflessly offers the results of his endeavours to the Supreme becomes situated in knowledge, he concludes through his intelligence that even while seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, moving, sleeping, breathing, speaking, evacuating, grasping and opening and closing his eyes, he actually does nothing; rather, his senses are engaged with their respective sense objects.

Verse 10

brahmaṇy ādhāya karmāṇi
saṅgaṁ tyaktvā karoti yaḥ
lipyate na sa pāpena
padma-patram ivāmbhasā

One who has renounced attachment to the fruit of action and offers that fruit to Me, the Supreme Lord, does not become affected by sin, just as a lotus leaf remains untouched by water.

Verse 11

kāyena manasā buddhyā
kevalair indriyair api
yoginaḥ karma kurvanti
saṅgaṁ tyaktvātma-śuddhaye

A yogī gives up all attachment and acts with his body, mind and intelligence, just to purify the mind. Sometimes he performs action only with his senses, not even engaging his mind.

Verse 12

yuktaḥ karma-phalaṁ tyaktvā
śāntim āpnoti naiṣṭhikīm
ayuktaḥ kāma-kāreṇa
phale sakto nibadhyate

Having given up attachment to the fruits of his actions, the yogī who selflessly offers the results of his prescribed duty to the Supreme attains unadulterated peace in the form of liberation from material existence. The sakāma-karmī, however, who is attached to the fruits of his activities and impelled by material desires, becomes entangled.

Verse 13

sarva-karmāṇi manasā
sannyasyāste sukhaṁ vaśī
nava-dvāre pure dehī
naiva kurvan na kārayan

The sense-controlled soul, the niṣkāma-karma-yogī, having renounced within his mind attachment to the fruits of all prescribed duty happily dwells in the city of nine gates, neither performing action himself nor causing anyone to act.

Verse 14

The Supreme Lord has neither created the individuals’ tendency to act, nor the actions themselves, nor the resultant fruits. All this is performed by their acquired nature, the nature impelled by the ignorance, or illusion, that has covered them since time immemorial.

Verse 15

nādatte kasyacit pāpaṁ
na caiva sukṛtaṁ vibhuḥ
ajñānenāvṛtaṁ jñānaṁ
tena muhyanti jantavaḥ

The Supreme Lord does not accept anyone’s sinful or pious reactions. Ignorance covers the inherent true knowledge of the living entities and bewilders them.

Verse 16

jñānena tu tad ajñānaṁ
yeṣāṁ nāśitam ātmanaḥ
teṣām āditya-vaj jñānaṁ
prakāśayati tat param

But for those whose ignorance has been destroyed by knowledge of Bhagavān, that knowledge, luminous like the sun, reveals the non-material, transcendental Absolute Truth, Śrī Bhagavān.

Verse 17

tad-buddhayas tad-ātmānas
tan-niṣṭhās tat-parāyaṇāḥ
gacchanty apunar-āvṛttiṁ
jñāna-nirdhūta-kalmaṣāḥ

Those whose intelligence is fixed on the Supreme Lord, whose minds are absorbed only in meditation on Him, who are exclusively devoted to Him, who are dedicated to hearing and chanting about Him, and whose ignorance has been completely destroyed by knowledge, attain liberation, from which there is no return.

Verse 18

vidyā-vinaya-sampanne
brāhmaṇe gavi hastini
śuni caiva śva-pāke ca
paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ

Enlightened persons (jñānis) perceive with equal vision a gentle and learned brāhmaṇa, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a dog eater.

Verse 19

ihaiva tair jitaḥ sargo
yeṣāṁ sāmye sthitaṁ manaḥ
nirdoṣaṁ hi samaṁ brahma
tasmād brahmaṇi te sthitāḥ

Those whose minds are fixed in equanimity are said to have conquered birth and death in this very life. Since they are flawless like brahma – the Absolute Spirit – and possess equanimity, they are verily situated in brahma.

Verse 20

na prahṛṣyet priyaṁ prāpya
nodvijet prāpya cāpriyam
sthira-buddhir asammūḍho
brahma-vid brahmaṇi sthitaḥ

One who knows brahma – the Absolute Spirit – and who is firmly situated in brahma, has steady intelligence and is not deluded. He neither rejoices upon obtaining something pleasant nor despairs upon receiving something unpleasant.

Verse 21

bāhya-sparśeṣv asaktātmā
vindaty ātmani yat sukham
sa brahma-yoga-yuktātmā
sukham akṣayam aśnute

He who is not attached to external sense pleasure finds happiness within the self. Being united with the Supreme Lord through yoga, he attains unending happiness.

Verse 22

ye hi saṁsparśa-jā bhogā
duḥkha-yonaya eva te
ādy-antavantaḥ kaunteya
na teṣu ramate budhaḥ

O son of Kuntī, pleasures born of contact with the senses are certainly the cause of misery. Since they have a beginning and an end, an enlightened person does not become attached to them.

Verse 23

śaknotīhaiva yaḥ soḍhuṁ
prāk śarīra-vimokṣaṇāt
kāma-krodhodbhavaṁ vegaṁ
sa yuktaḥ sa sukhī naraḥ

Before giving up the body, he who in this very life can tolerate the urges born of lust and anger is a yogī and is indeed happy.

Verses 24

yo ’ntaḥ-sukho ’ntar-ārāmas
tathāntar-jyotir eva yaḥ
sa yogī brahma-nirvāṇaṁ
brahma-bhūto ’dhigacchati

A yogī who derives happiness exclusively from within the self, who delights only within the self, and whose vision is solely directed within the self, is situated in transcendence (brahma). He attains the bliss of that transcendence in emancipation from material existence.

Verse 25

labhante brahma-nirvāṇam
ṛṣayaḥ kṣīṇa-kalmaṣāḥ
chinna-dvaidhā yatātmānaḥ
sarva-bhūta-hite ratāḥ

Those saintly persons who are free from sin and doubt, who control their minds, and who are attached to the welfare of all living entities, attain emancipation from material existence through realization of Absolute Spirit (brahma).

Verse 26

kāma-krodha-vimuktānāṁ
yatīnāṁ yata-cetasām
abhito brahma-nirvāṇaṁ
vartate viditātmanām

Those renunciants whose hearts are free from lust, anger, etc., who control their minds, and who are well versed in the truth of the soul, completely extinguish material life through spiritual realization.

Verse 27-28

He who is free from desire, fear and anger completely removes external sense objects, such as sound and touch, from his mind. He then fixes his vision between his eyebrows and suspends the movement of the inward and outward flowing life-airs, which move through the nostrils. In this way, he balances the life-airs, controls his senses, mind and intelligence, and dedicates himself to attaining liberation. Certainly, such a sage is ever-liberated.

Verse 29

“Iti Srimad Bhagavad Gitasu Upanishatsu Brahma Vidyayaam Yogashastre, Sri Krsna Arjuna Samvāde Karma-Sannyāsa Yoga Nāma Panchamodhyāyaha”